Learning Paths » 5A Interacting
VLugnan-5A-notes of 01-02-12
by - (2012-02-01)
Up to 5 A - Modernist Fiction: V. Woolf and J. Joyce
NOTES OF 01-02-12
V. Woolf asserts that these moments of being, THESE FLASHES OF AWARENESS, REVEAL A PATTERN HIDDEN BEHIND THE COTTON-WOOL OF DAILY LIFE and that we "I mean all human beings- are connected with this; that the whole world is a work of art; that we are parts of the work of art".
But the individual artist is not important in this work.
Instead V. Woolf says of all people "we are the words, we are the work of art; we are the music; we are the thing itself", thus for V. Woolf a moment of being IS A MOMENT WHEN AN INDIVIDUAL IS FULLY CONSCIOUS OF HIS EXPERIENCE, A MOMENT WHEN HE IS NOT ONLY AWARE OF HIMSELF BUT CATCHES A GLIMPSE OF HIS CONNECTION TO A LARGER PATTERN HIDDEN BEHIND THE OPAQUE SURFACE OF DAILY LIFE.
Unlike moments of non-being when the individual lives and acts without awareness, performing acts as if asleep, the moment of being opens up a hidden reality.
Moments of being can be found throughout Woolf's fiction... Examine examples from her novels, "Mrs. Dalloway", "To the Lighthouse" and "Between the Acts", these are often moments of INTENSE POWER AND BEAUTY.
Unlike Joyce's epiphanies, these moments DO NOT REVEAL SOMETHING IMPORTANT FOR THE CHARACTER, BUT THEY PROVIDE MOMENTS OF ENERGY AND AWARENESS THAT ALLOW THE CHARACTER, WHO EXPERIENCES THEM, TO SEE LIFE MORE CLEARLY AND MORE FULLY, IF ONLY BRIEFLY.
Some of the characters try to share the vision that they glimpse, making the work of art that is life. Mrs. Dalloway presents the two characters, who are more receptive in all of V. Woolf's fiction:
Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith. Clarissa experiences her moments of being while in the middle of what appears to be trivial acts, indicating that IT IS NOT THE ACTION, BUT HER AWARENESS THAT SETS A MOMENT OF BEING APART FROM HER OTHER EXPERIENCES.
For example, as Clarissa watches taxi cabs pass by she founds them "ABSOLUTELY ABSORBING". Her thoughts reveal that "What she loved was this here, now, in front of her, the fat lady in the cab... Did it matter that she must inevitably cease completely..or did it not become consoling to believe that somehow in the streets of London, on the ebb and the flow of things, here, there, she survived".
Throughout the day Clarissa is particularly aware of these threads of connection between herself and her surroundings. The moments of being ARE MARKED BY PARTICULARLY VIVID AND POWERFUL LANGUAGE.
Because they are moments of exact feeling, the language used to convey them must naturally be EVOCATIVE AND PRECISE.
THE FORM AND CONTENT MUST BE IN PERFECT SYMMETRY. In her moments of being Virginia Woolf USES A LANGUAGE WHAT APPROACHES POETRY. CLARITY IS PRECISELY WHAT V. WOOLF ACHIEVES IN A MOMENT OF BEING.